The Never-Ending Applause
by Crescent Blue
Summary: Eight people trapped in a mansion. Is she crazy or are they? Rated "T" for safety.
1. Bad End NighT

The Never-Ending Applause

By: Crescent Blue

A/N: This fanfic is my interpretation of the Bad End NighT series. I've read the manga version and that seems to tell the same story, but in a different way. There are things that the manga does not cover that appear in the videos and vice versa. I've also watched some amazing fan dubs by Angela and Razzy on YouTube. Their videos helped me understand the story more because the translations of the original were somewhat choppy.

Disclaimer: Vocaloid and all related characters and content belong to Crypton Future Media and company.

* * *

A dark, dense forest surrounded her. She had no idea whatsoever where she was headed.

"I must've taken a wrong turn!" the village girl named Miku miserably tried to find some semblance of a path. "It's so foggy out here and who knows what types of wild animals are lurking about."

Clutched within her trembling hand was a letter addressed to her. She hadn't opened it yet, but she was hardly worried about that now. It was getting very late and the full moon seemed unusually large and intimidating.

"Never mind wild animals, there might be some freakish people here too! What am I going to do?"

She trudged forward not knowing what she'd find. It seemed hopeless, but she seemed to have found a clearing. Rather, a clearing with a large mansion residing in it.

"What kind of people live in a mansion that's literally buried in the woods? There's no path or anything that leads to it." Miku surveyed the area before realizing that she just might be in luck.

"If they're nice, they might let me stay the night until I figure something out." Miku marveled at the size of the mansion. "They appear to be wealthy though. I wonder if they'll even give me a slight glance."

She cautiously approached the large, wooden doors. The doors were surprisingly old and appearing to dry-rot. "They live in a dilapidated mansion?"

Within seconds of Miku's two timid knocks, a handsome butler with long, flowing lavender hair answered.

"Hello, miss. Do you not have a place to go?"

"No. Could I possibly stay the night? I promise I'll leave in the morning."

"We should party, party!" two small, twin children cheered together.

' _Party?'_ Miku couldn't understand why they'd want to party simply because of her arrival. ' _Wait. Does that little boy have ball joints_ _in his legs_ _?'_

"This gathering must be fate!" a tall, elegant man with navy-blue hair cried.

"Fate? What are you talking about, sir?" Miku soon began to question her choice of refuge. ' _What is wrong with these people? Are they so isolated that they've gone mad with loneliness?'_

"Ahahahaha! You don't know our names do you?" the doll boy giggled.

"Let's pretend that we don't know who we are!" the doll girl cheered.

"Splendid idea!" a refined woman with short brunette hair tittered. "You look like you've come from the village, dear. You are now, 'Miss Villager'."

"You may address us by our titles alone. I am to be known simply as 'Lady'", a regal looking young woman with long, pink hair stated.

"You may call me, 'Butler'."

"I am Doll Girl!"

"And I am Doll Boy!"

"I am 'Mistress'."

"I am 'Master', the Mistress's husband."

"Have a seat, Miss Villager! Maid, here, will serve some tea!"

"Let the show begin!" the dolls cheered.

" _You're the Leading Lady in this Crazy NighT! You're dressed to the nines, so have a glass of wine!"_ the mansion's denizens sang a ditty while they danced.

Miku could only stare at the scene unfolding before her. She stared down into her wine glass. The red liquid seemed so gloomy.

"Come join us, Miss Villager!" the Doll Girl grasped Miku's hands and practically dragged her to the center of the room. Butler and Lady were dancing a tango. Master and Mistress were dancing a foxtrot together. Doll Boy was dancing with and teasing Maid.

Miku eventually gave in and began to tap along to the music. Doll Girl copied her steps and the two girls began laughing.

' _I don't really know why they're doing all of this, but I suppose I needed to loosen up after being lost for so long.'_ Miku was just happy to have a temporary roof over her head on this cold, dark night.

The dancing came to an end and the group headed to the dining room where an impressive feast was prepared.

' _It seems like they had this planned for some time. There's no way that all of this food was cooked in the short time that we danced….'_

Miku let her doubts be assuaged as the delightful smell of the food took her over.

* * *

After the festivities ended, Miku who was stuffed with the delicious food, asked to turn in for the night.

Butler showed her to the guest room and prepared it for her.

"Thank you, Butler. I'll see you in the morning!" the wearied village girl closed her eyes and dreamed of how she'd return home.

"Good night, Miss Villager." the man blew out the table lamp and closed the door.

' _Hmm. Morning. It's been an eternity since we've seen one.'_

* * *

A well-rested Miku awakened and stretched her limbs.

"I wish my own bed was this comfortable! Oh, how nice it is to be rich!"

Miku looked around the room and noticed that it was still quite dark. ' _That's strange. It feels as if I slept an entire night, but it looks as if it's still nighttime.'_

The village girl got up and opened the curtains to the guest room. She took a step backwards and gasped. The large, bright ivory moon shone strong through the glass.

"It's…..it's still nighttime! Did I sleep through the entire day? Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

Miku left the guest room and entered the drafty corridor. She walked around the mansion's many hallways and came to a grand staircase. She noticed the Doll Twins standing in front of the grandfather clock. It was constructed of glistening mahogany wood with gold hands and pendulum. Miku would've admired its features further, but there was a pressing matter that needed to be attended to.

"Um, excuse, Doll Girl and Doll Boy? What time is it exactly? I didn't mean to sleep in so late!"

"What do you mean, Miss Villager? It's the same time that it's always been! It's 11:56pm!" Doll Boy answered with his typical cackle.

"The same time that it's always been? What do _**you**_ mean?" Miku demanded. ' _And they're still calling me 'Miss Villager' even though the party is over. This is too strange. I have to get out of here and away from them.'_

"Time is frozen, Miss Villager." Doll Girl explained as if the situation was normal.

"How? That doesn't make any sense! The clock is simply broken. That doesn't mean that time itself has stopped!"

"Then, why is the moon still out?" Doll Boy asked with a smirk upon his small face. Miku noticed that their normally crystal, blue pupils were now a reddish-orange color.

Miku could not stand anymore madness. ' _No. I can't believe this. I would choose a crazy house as a refuge! Ugh! This place is too huge! I forgot where the main entrance was!'_

She dashed madly through the hallways. Every door seemed to look alike. "The main entrance has to be somewhere! Did it disappear?"

She ran still and seemed to come full circle. The grand staircase with the grandfather clock sitting on the bottom floor was the prize for her efforts.

The Doll Twins were no longer there which was fine by her. She inspected the room surrounding the clock. It was then that something caught her eye. To the left of the clock, it seemed as if a door was outlined in the same paint as the wall.

"A hidden door? Why would that be here? No matter. There might be an exit through it."

Miku pulled at the door which was unusually heavy. "What could this heavy door be here for? Are their valuables locked away behind it?"

Instead of treasures untold, the village girl found a long spiral staircase descending into darkness.

"What is up with this place? I've gotten lost in a demented freak show. Well, I can't find the door where I came in. This is my only option at the moment."

Miku's shoes clacked loudly as she carefully descended the stairs. She braced her left arm against the wall for support as there were no lights in this corridor. ' _It's amazing how this deep chamber fits underneath the mansion. Nothing about this place is making sense. Oh well, I won't be here for too much longer. There must be a secret exit down here.'_

The village girl came to a large door with heavy bolts. ' _The surprises never cease.'_

Giving the doors her mightiest shoves, she finally managed to push them open.

Horror awaited her on the other side.

"Coffins? Why are there coffins here?!"

"Oh no, she's seen it now!" Master's worried voice could be heard echoing in the chamber with the black and white tiled floor.

"Please don't be alarmed, Miss!" Maid tried to reassure their guest.

"Danger! Danger!" the Doll Twins cried, their cheerful tones inappropriate for the situation.

"Where are you going to run to?" Butler asked, but there was no note of concern in his voice.

Miku ran past them back towards the stairs.

"Wait a moment please!" they all insisted.

" _You're the Leading Lady in this Crazy NighT. Will you follow the script or want a full rewrite? What kind of ending do you have in mind? Don't you know it's yours to decide? So, look again for your Happy EnD! If you don't get it right, the game is over then. Is the True EnD bound for the burial ground? Well, is it a Bad End NighT?!"_

"What can I do to escape from all of you?!"

"The play is not over yet." Master and Mistress chorused together.

"Then, you'll be returned home." Butler and Maid intoned.

"The Happy EnD seems to be here somewhere. It's hidden in plain sight." Miku slammed the door before the others could reach the top of the stairs.

For some reason, her eyes automatically drew themselves towards the face of the grandfather clock. The minute and hour hands gleamed in the light. She looked closer. They looked a lot like daggers. In fact, they _were_ daggers. Perfect.

" _I'm the Leading Lady in this Crazy NighT! With a knife in my left hand and a skull in my right…._ " Miku sang her own, eviler version of their ditty. The maniacal smile that bloomed on her face seemed unnatural.

She hid the daggers behind her back and waited for the strange group to finish ascending the stairs.

"The curtains will fall. Clear the stage." was Miku's only warning.

The mansion's residents ran for their lives. Trapped in the mansion as they were, they didn't get far.

The Butler, the Master, the Maid, the Doll Twins, they all fell to the Villager's blades.

Blood pooled and stained the hardwood floors. The residents' mutilated bodies lay strewn about, their faces twisted in pain and fear.

" _ **AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**_ " Miku laughed. She was free.

But something strange happened.

The room began to warp and bend. The carnage that lay before Miku was erased and she felt herself being transported backwards. The room remained and was reset. An empty stage awaiting its next actors with only a letter lying on the floor in front of the fateful grandfather clock.

Clapping could be heard resounding through the silence.

 _It was a great show they put on tonight. The shadow picked up a fallen letter weeping silently._

* * *

A/N: And that is my interpretation of Bad End NighT. I had to include some lines from the fan dub song by Razzy in order to tell the story. Check out the video on YouTube. It's amazing!

Crazy NighT is next!

Thanks for reading!


	2. Crazy NighT

The Never-Ending Applause

Crazy NighT

The applause resounds throughout the room, but it's not heard by the actors.

It's dark and Miku does not know where she is at the moment. However, she remembers what happened before she reached wherever she is now.

"Those crazed people in the mansion. They're responsible for this. I don't know what game they're playing, but I'm going to end it."

A buzzer sounds and the village girl finds herself back inside the forest.

The moonlight seemed to direct a path for her to follow. The path back to the bizarre mansion and its mysterious inhabitants were no doubt waiting inside scheming.

"Whatever they planned before didn't turn out right. They never expected me to snoop and find their hidden basement. I bet they kill every one of their 'guests' and put them in the coffins. I don't know how many they killed so far or why, but it seems like they plan on killing eight people as there are eight coffins. Because it all went wrong, they somehow restarted everything. ….Or maybe the mansion itself reset things. How can the people I killed revive themselves anyway?"

Her questions were put on hold as the village girl once again approached the mansion's wooden doors. She knocked twice as she did before.

"We welcome all! Please come inside." the Butler greeted.

' _You'll never guess what I'll do once I'm inside though._ ' Miku snickered to herself. She wouldn't attack them just yet. Besides, she doesn't have the clock hands at the moment. ' _How stupid of them to keep those weapons within easy reach!_ ' She'd let them party and believe that they've got her tamed.

Once the party and feast ends, the Butler leads her to the guest room.

"I'm not going to sleep this time. That's what they expect me to do. I'll look around carefully since they believe that I went to bed."

Miku realized that panicked searching always yields nothing. She slowly paced down the long hallways taking in every nook and cranny.

She came to a room that she'd not seen before. It was a sitting room with a book on a type of black, stone pillar.

Strangest of all, it was glowing with tiny paper moths flying around it.

"What in the world is this?" Miku stared at the book in pure awe. "Oh! This must be what they meant by 'Leading Lady' and 'follow the script or want a full rewrite'. But where did they get it from? Did they write it themselves in order to achieve something? It's clearly a magical item."

Miku was somewhat hesitant to touch it.

"Well, I will definitely rewrite the 'script'. The story can't go on if it's incomplete." Miku grasped the book in one hand and tore out a page.

"There. Now, whatever they have written in that book will be put on hold. This will cause a big problem for them and give me more time to figure out how to escape this strange world. Maybe the book itself will tell me more about it."

Miku tried to read the torn out page, but strangely, couldn't. "It's blank now! But there was writing on it before!" She turned it over many times to no avail. Whatever was written on the page prior no longer existed.

Miku tossed the empty page to the ground and turned away from the damaged script.

"It doesn't matter, I guess. Now to wait until the action begins."

As the scheming Village Girl left the room, the stolen page that lie listlessly on the floor began to evaporate into the air. The spot where the former page once rested in the script remained bare with the jagged evidence left behind.

* * *

"Doll Boy, why don't you check on our guest?" Master requested of the blonde, child-like doll.

"I'm on it, Master! Ahahaha!" the mischievous doll skipped off to the guest room.

A few minutes later, the Doll Boy returned to report that the Villager was not in her room.

"Where did she go?" Lady could not understand how such a bizarre event could've happened.

"The Villager is always in the guest room when we awaken. It's in the script." Mistress tried to reason out this anomaly.

"We must carry on without her." Master ordered. "Mistakes should never stop a performance."

"Something is quite awry here. There haven't been any mistakes. Everything was as it should have been." Butler felt himself be overtaken by a hunch. He sauntered off towards the sitting room. The others followed him.

Upon their entrance, the Butler felt a rare sensation. He gasped and felt dread. It was something that hadn't occurred to him in days, or perhaps years, passed.

"A page is missing!" Doll Boy and Doll Girl cried out. For once, their voices were not filled with cheer, but with worry.

"Who could've done this and why?" Maid could not imagine why someone would destroy the very thing that allowed them to exist in this world.

"We must search for that page!" Master ordered. "Everyone, split up and comb every floor of the mansion!"

"It's not there." "Not there." "Not anywhere." "The page is nowhere to be found!"

"It was hidden!" Doll Girl theorized. "It's torn apart!" Doll Boy argued back.

"Insects could've eaten it." Lady tried to give practical reasons in this debate. She did not want to think that one of their own stole the page.

"Is it on strike?" Butler asked which raised confused eyebrows on the others.

"On strike, Butler? Really?" Lady sardonically asked.

"Perhaps the script was tired of our constant failures to perform this play correctly." Butler steadfastly ignored the Lady's insult. "After all, it's the reason why we can never see the morning again."

"Well, we have been at this for quite some time. I've lost count of how long we've been here doing this same thing over and over again." Lady agreed. "Tonight's going to be continued once again…."

They didn't know what they were doing wrong. The nights with the same events kept replaying themselves. They were powerless to do anything outside of the script. Something suddenly dawned on her.

"Hey. We've never talked like this in the play though. Do you think that….?"

"Yes. The missing page has given us some freedom for the time being. But we still must find it. If we've been trapped before, we're truly trapped now. The missing page prevents the play from continuing as planned."

"Something changed on the last round. Usually, the Villager is revealed to be the serial killer from the village. She kills for the fun of it. The last time, she killed us out of fear. However, those changes happened before the page was stolen."

"By the way, does anyone know what was on the stolen page?" asked Maid.

"Perhaps an undesired scene." Butler guessed.

"Could it be that the next page...reveals the culprit to us?" Doll Girl began and Doll Boy finished.

"That page predicts our future." Mistress intoned.

"How did they know it when we didn't?" Master questioned.

"The Villager has been missing this entire time. Isn't it funny that the page disappeared when she did?" Lady frowned as this revelation came to light.

The group heard footsteps enter the room. It was Miss Villager.

"The culprit all along was you!" they chorused.

"Ah, so you've found me out." Miku sing-songed. She revealed the daggers from behind her back and began the assault again.

Their bodies once again littered the floor. Miku stopped in her tracks once the killings ceased.

She felt something within herself awakening. Images of the previous NighT flashed before her mind's eye. Somehow, it didn't add up to the feeling she had deep inside her soul.

She dropped the daggers to the floor.

"This isn't the Crazy NighT that I knew to be true!" Miku screamed. "This can't be it!"

With the deaths of the cast, the mansion began to once again reset itself.

"You must make the NighT even crazier! Truth is not necessarily bound to what's written down. That is how you'll see the True EnD."

"Let us meet again another NighT until the ending credits roll!"

* * *

A/N: If you watch Crazy NighT's video closely, you'll see that Miku is standing in front of a glowing book. She sings to the tune of Bad End Night. As the scene transitions, you can hear the sound of paper ripping.


	3. Twilight NighT

"I just want to return home. Return to my real home. But the applause, it's not ending no matter what I do...But I wonder how I even got here. What is that other place that's so vague in my memories?"

A lonely Miku makes her way to the familiar, strange mansion carrying countless secrets.

Butler and Maid welcome her. Master and Mistress suggest a party.

' _How many more times do I have to play this charade?_ '

The dancing and singing carry on and the group begins a feast.

Miku, weary of the repetitive scene, leaves for bed early.

"Where is Miss Villager? She was supposed to be at the dinner table."

"It appears that she retired for the night already." Butler clarified noticing that the door leading to the upstairs bedrooms was left open.

"How strange. She never leaves early."

"Hey! What is this?" Doll Girl spotted something on the floor beside the empty seat where Miss Villager normally sat. It was an envelope addressed to the Villager.

* * *

Miku in her comfortable bed could not sleep. Strange, familiar images plagued her dreams. Scenes from the previous NighTs and scenes from that mysterious other place intermingled with each other. What did they all mean? She felt a strong connections with the images that were not of the current world she was in.

"This place. There is something very wrong with this current world. It seems like my theory about them was mistaken. They may be victims of this world as well. But how did we all end up here? From where did we come?"

* **thud thud thud** *

"That sound is coming from below the floor? No, it sounds as if it's coming from the basement...the place where those coffins are!"

Miku left the room to investigate the sound's source.

* * *

"Did you all hear that pounding sound?" Lady asked as the noise startled all in the dining room.

"Where could it be coming from? There's never been anything like that in this house before." Butler pondered as he crawled on the floor listening and looking for its source.

Doll Girl walked around the room to find the source of the noise and came up with nothing. She unknowingly began to crinkle the letter in her small hands. It suddenly dawned on her about their eight member. "Miss Villager is still missing too!"

"That doesn't matter right now. This letter might be the missing page!" Maid took the paper from Doll Girl's hands and opened it. "We may have found the Ending at last!"

"Be careful!" Master, elated at the possibility of escaping, was not so sure on jumping at anything. "It's blank. We should try to figure out why its blank before inserting it into the script."

"Master, the rules of this world are already broken. We've never been allowed to do things like this before! We may never get this opportunity again!" Doll Boy's serious tone took everyone by surprise. He wasn't sounding like his usual self.

"You've never been this serious before, my dear little doll." Lady taunted.

"And you've never been this antagonistic before, Lady." Butler chimed. "But regardless of that, it's all suspicious if you ask me."

"You're all proving my point! The missing page is what's allowing this. Why trap ourselves again?"

"Please, calm yourself. The rules of this world are not broken, they're merely bent. Even though we have quite a bit more freedom, have you all noticed that we're still bound by this world's laws? Time has still not moved forward either. Mistress, can you remember what your real name is?"

"Of course! It's...it's..." Mistress gasped as her mind failed to draw up her true name.

"As Butler said during the previous NighT, we are in limbo right now. The world we're in is struggling to maintain itself due to the stolen page. Our very existence is inscribed in the pages. If this world falls apart, what do you suppose will happen to the actors?"

Doll Girl shuddered. "We're going to disappear aren't we?"

"Yes. We may be getting bits and pieces of our former selves, but if we can't finish the play, we'll either spend the rest of our lives here or disappear with the crumbling play." Master solemnly accepted his fate after the first few NighTs. No amount of optimism would change their situation.

"Oh, curse you and your realism! There must be a way to end this madness! We've been performing this insane story countless times already. You would think that we'd be experts at this by now." Lady huffed.

Doll Boy rolled his glass eyes. "Besides, if it goes wrong, it'll just be another Bad EnD. Big whoop. Everything usually causes a Bad EnD anyway. All of the pieces are in place at the beginning of each NighT. The clock hands that are supposed to pass time, but are actually tools of slaughter. The Villager always finds them and uses them to kill us. Sometimes, we turned the tables on her, but for some reason, we haven't recently. But my point is, we _finally_ have a chance to do things differently! We should take it!"

"Perhaps, the true person to blame is the one who never ends the applause. They must be keeping us here for some reason." Mistress, forever insightful, encouraged others to think outside of their emotions and to see the picture at large.

"Ah, Mistress, I feel that you've said that before some time ago in another place." Master sighed happily. It was a warm memory that was just beyond his mind's eye at the moment. He wondered if he loved Mistress outside of the play as well.

"Perhaps I did, but regardless, I agree with Doll Boy. We should change our approach while we have the chance. As Lady says, we've performed this play perfectly countless times. It may not even matter how flawlessly we perform. We could be trapped for the shadow's sole amusement."

"Yeah. If that's the case, let's deprive him or her of that entertainment." Maid suggested. "If we're going to die, let's die fighting! We'll fight for our freedom or disappear trying!"

"Finally, someone who takes me seriously!" Doll Boy gloated and smirked at the Master's sullen expression. Truth be told, there were no words for how worn out they all were.

"Well, there's nothing else for us to do, but insert this page into the script and see how it goes." Butler brought them all back to the reality at hand. He brought a wine bottle from the dining room and set it next to the script.

* * *

Miku grabbed the daggers from the clock and headed down to the basement. She made her way across the black and white tile floor to the coffin furthest from the door. The sound was emanating from it. She normally used those daggers to kill the occupants, but she had a better idea in mind.

"I wonder if these daggers can be used to open the coffins. But I don't really want to see a dead body either!"

Miku took a big swallow and inserted the hour hand into the keyhole and turned it right. A clack signified her theory's success.

"Oh...I don't know if I can do this!" Miku squeezed her eyes shut and reached one hand in. Her fingers felt...paper?

"All of that noise...for a piece of paper? It's another envelope." Miku felt somewhat disappointed. But something dawned on her.

"I had another envelope before this one! I think it's the one that I've always had at the beginning, but could never open."

She searched her pockets and found nothing.

"I must've dropped it! But what's this letter about?"

Miku opened the envelope and to her surprise it read, "End RolL". The rest of the text was faded out.

"I must show this to the others!"

Miku rushed up the stairs towards the sitting room.

* * *

Using the wine as ink, the group wrote the epilogue on the blank page after careful deliberation about the choice of words.

Butler inserted the page at the end of the book.

Their hearts were pounding in anticipation. Was this finally it? Was this the missing key to ending the play?

The script slammed shut and began to unravel at the spine. Pages were flying in every direction. The mansion began to tremble and warp.

They began to hear the Villager's voice calling out to them, but her voice was muffled.

"No! Wait! The letter I found is the True EnD!"

But it was too late. The blank page was dyed badly. Wine was not meant to be used as ink.

Another Bad EnD greeted them.

 _'til another NighT!_

* * *

A/N: Well, almost finished here. EverLasting NighT is next.


	4. EverLasting NighT

"Well, that didn't go so well did it?" Lady hummed while twirling a few strands of her hair. Their attempt to force an ending did not pan out.

"It's as I said, we should've proceeded with the utmost caution before inserting that blank page." Master huffed in one of his rare irritated moods.

"At least we didn't get killed by the Villager that time." Maid's innocent optimism brought a small smile to Doll Girl, Mistress, and Butler.

"And we tried something different." Doll Boy was still elated at the change of pace despite it being another NighT to repeat. "But I have a feeling that this will be the last performance. And we have to remember where this all started. Let's focus on that."

The group of seven fell into pensive silence as they brainstormed on what could've possibly happened to cause this unending nightmare.

"I'm remembering that it was a stormy night and a girl brought us all a shady letter." Master held his fingers to his chin as he was deep in thought.

"Yes, she was saying that we betrayed her. But I have a feeling that we felt that we were betrayed as well." Maid added.

"She avidly believed that the 'truth' was inside that letter." Mistress began to recall the events of a fateful night.

"She said she'd lock it away somewhere while she told the world of our alleged lie." Lady frowned in concentration not liking where their memories were taking them.

"The girl ran and reached a stairwell. She threatened us with a knife." Master's eyes grew horrified at what he was recalling. "She lost her balance and fell. The knife in her hands ended up piercing her heart."

"We tried to reach her, but we were too far away to catch her." Mistress despondently hung her head.

In the distance, a buzzer sounded.

Hmm. It appears that we'll be performing again..." Butler sighed hopelessly.

 _A magnificent NighT indeed._

* * *

Miku approached the mansion as she'd done many times before. She knocked, but she received no answer this time around.

"Well, I suppose that I'll just let myself in."

The main corridor was empty. No one was there to greet her.

"Where could they all be? But this is a great opportunity to explore where I couldn't before."

Miku had kept her search on the second floor the times prior, but she never got a good look at the first floor. She took the path on the right and came to a room with ornate, double wooden doors.

"Wow! This library is enormous!"

Miku noticed a table with two teddy bears sitting at it. "How strange. I wonder if the Dolls were here last."

She removed one book from the shelf, removed one bear from the seat, and began to read.

* * *

"We were actors! We were acting out this same story, but on a real stage!" Doll Boy exclaimed as more pieces of their memory returned to them.

"Yes, I remember that as well. The crowd was cheering out with happy cries. Wanting to live in the play's moments for an eternity." Lady sighed.

"But then the lead role danced too close to the grandfather clock and broke it." Doll Girl remembered being a bit embarrassed on stage due to the awkward moment.

"But we've made mistakes before and nothing ever transported us to wherever we are now." Mistress countered.

"But I remember something weird though. It happened when the girl we argued with died. Things seemed to black out after she died. We saw her laying at the bottom of the stairs. When we began to run towards her, everything went black. Maybe it was the shock of it all. And then we were back on the stage in front of the audience at the beginning of the first act. It was as if her death never happened..." Maid's explanation may have been scattered, but it seemed to ring true with Butler.

"You are correct in your observation, Maid. I had thought that our minds were simply playing tricks on us for the lead role was there standing with us when the play began."

"But then, who is the lead role here?" Lady questioned.

* * *

Miku took in shuddering breaths. Many books piled up on the table in front of her.

"This world isn't real. None of us here are real! If what those books tell is true, then we've all been repeating this same NighT. The Lead Role, me, has died many times before in this place. My role in the play is the serial killer from the village. In the story, one of the mansion's occupants eventually kills me to protect themselves after a certain amount of kills accumulated. They're only acting according the role they're trapped in. But what happened to disrupt that pattern? What caused me to suddenly be fearful of them as soon as I entered the mansion?"

 _'It was odd that a couple of NighTs ago that I entered the mansion with no initial urge to kill though. It's almost as if I was never a killer to begin with and was pushed to the_ _extreme.'_ Miku gasped. That was it. "The act of killing began to feel unnatural! Acting...Wait...I remember it now! We were performing this play for a real audience before! I made a mistake and some mystical force sent us here to perform the play for an eternity." The heaviness of her actions began to sink in. How much time have they wasted here? What of the real world? Their disappearance must've caused untold worry amongst their family and fans. Her dear friends...they must harbor a deep hatred of her. "It's...it's all my fault!"

Miku sobbed for some time before she began to formulate a plan. Drying her red, puffy eyes, Miku stood from her seat. "I have to set this right somehow. It was my mistake that sent us all here. And I will send them back to reality even it means that I have to remain trapped here. I'll make that my sole mission! And I have the thing to do it. I have the End RolL!"

"I also have that letter that's always been in my pocket. It always respawns with each NighT. They both must be the keys to ending this world. It's time to put them to use."

* * *

"Yes, who is this girl who looks like the one we've performed with in the real world?" Master dug into his mind, but was drawing a blank.

"I think I've got it!" Doll Boy said with confidence in his eyes. "When the girl we knew died, she was replaced with this fake lead role during that black out. The audience that we performed for? They were fake too. Whoever is behind this wanted us to believe that we were still in the real world."

"You know, Len, that is actually making sense!" Doll Girl slammed her fists together in confirmation. "Wait? I called you 'Len'!"

"You did indeed, Rin." Len winked. "It's great to have our real names again. But anyway, when the fake lead role broke the clock, she broke the illusion that we were all in. She sent us to the fake world that we are all in now."

"So, we're literally trapped in the lead role's play." Gakupo mused. "How troublesome."

"Everything that she does affects the future NighTs. It's all making sense." Kaito frowned at this news. He had an idea of what they had to do to end it all, but he didn't care for the method.

"It's apparently true considering how she changed the course of the most current events." Len agreed by giving Kaito a thumbs up.

"We still can't find that missing page though, but I suppose it's no longer needed now that we have all of the missing links." Gakupo theorized.

"Time is wasting away for us here." Gumi sighed.

"The EnD is nowhere in sight." Meiko glared at a painting on the wall trying to hide her tears.

"As long as the lead role lives, the story goes on." Kaito gritted his teeth. He didn't want to kill anyone, but it appears that they'd have to in order for the NighTs to end.

"But even when she died, we're still stuck here." Luka crossed her arms and twirled more strands of her hair.

"Too bad we can't bring in someone new, huh?" Rin whined.

"That would turn the Page and bring a new day." Len pouted over its implausibility.

* * *

Miku rushed up to the sitting room where the script was.

"All I have to do is find some sort of ink and we're home free!"

Miku stopped outside of the slightly opened door and quietly peeked in through it.

' _They're discussing something. Is it about how to end the play?_ '

"So, tonight, we'll tame that girl." Len looked at them all with a steely gaze.

"We have to bring the real lead role back." Rin nodded her agreement.

"The real and the fake..." Kaito still didn't feel right about this plan.

"...will be switched after this performance." Gumi finished for Kaito seeing that he trailed off his sentence.

"We must keep this a secret from her. She's likely begun to remember things as well." Meiko did not want to go through with this plan, but everything else had failed.

Even though the Villager was killed in the performances prior, it hadn't dissolved the fake world. Her death was expected since it was in the script. The cast of a play should not act as if they're aware of the script. It would be unnatural. However, unnatural is exactly what the troupe had in mind. After all, it was what caused the current events to unfold. They would kill the Lead Role themselves. No partying, singing, and no script. Once the Lead Role in the fake world died at their hands, the real one would return. There's no story without a Lead Role after all. This was the only way it could be done.

"We'll be able to escape to our true world at last!" Luka's outburst was uncharacteristic for her under normal circumstances, but she felt no need to be prim and proper at the moment.

"The seven of us will finally perform the finale. It will be-" Gakupo's cheer was cut off as the Lead Role's voice cut through their merriment.

"-A most magnificent night!" Miku yelled with tears pouring out of her eyes. The lead role turned and made a mad dash from the room.

"No, wait! Miku!" Kaito was heard calling, but his voice did not reach her. He turned to the others. "We have to stop her! She'll cause another BaD EnD!"

' _I can't believe it! I'm nothing but a fake! They just wanted to exchange my death for hers. They're wrong. I'm the real_ _Miku_!'

She ran to the grandfather clock and grabbed the daggers and made her way almost blindly to the basement.

Miku opened the same coffin that she was too frightened to open fully before. The hour hand fit perfectly as the last time. Inside was a body of another Miku with dried blood on her chest.

The Villager hung her head in unabashed despair.

"It's true...they were telling the truth! But still, they're not going to kill me. I'll put all of their plans to a grinding halt by ending this play myself."

She took the End RolL out of her pocket and laid it upon the cold floor. She opened the envelope and discovered a blank page.

"I don't have anything for ink, but I think I have a suitable substitute."

Using the minute hand, she slit one of her wrists. Her blood oozed out rapidly. Taking the edge of the blade, she made sure to coat it with enough of her life's essence. Being careful not to tear the blank page, she began to write the epilogue. ' **The Everlasting NighT is ending. Here comes a new dawn.** '

The page vanishes and she raises the dagger in the air above her.

The rest of cast finally reach the basement and are frozen with shock.

"Please stop!", "We have no other choice!", "We don't really hate you, but there's no other way!"

Miku gives them one final glance.

"We'll return to the unwanted reality."

With a plunge of the dagger and a subtle splatting sound, the entire world around them began to not warp and reset, but instead began to dissolve.

 _clap clap clap clap_

 ** _True_ _EnD_**

* * *

 _Theater - Grand Staircase_

As Miku fell, thuds and rumbles were echoing throughout the room which held the grand staircase of the theater. Kaito's hand had missed Miku's by a mere inch.

"NO! Miku!" Kaito grasped his hair and sunk to his knees. Luka, Meiko, Gumi, and Rin cried uncontrollably.

"Someone call for help!" Len rushed down the stairs towards Miku's unmoving body along with Gakupo.

"It's no use. The knife she held has pierced her heart." the lavender-haired man reported solemnly.

The two actors stared down at their lifeless friend.

"Was it all a dream, Gakupo? All of the endless nights?"

"I'm not sure. We've experienced this scene before, but this time it feels final. Were we trapped there to try and save her? Or did we enact some type of curse because an actor died in the legendary theater?"

"But you heard her. 'We'll return to the unwanted reality.' And it looks as if we have."

Gakupo contemplated with his fingers cradling his chin.

"I believe that we sent ourselves to that world to avoid the undeniable truth. But the truth, which was represented as the fake Miku, began to unravel our lie. We acted accordingly. After all, no one likes their realm of delusion to be slowly, but surely shattered. The shadowy figure that was always clapping? That was reality taunting us. It gave mocking approval of our 'performances'."

"I...see what you mean. We desperately wanted the truth gone. So we tried to exchange that fake Miku for the one we knew in the hopes it would alter reality. A most unrealistic expectation."

"Yes." Gakupo put his hand on Len's shoulder as they both tried to cope with the truth they tried so hard to run away from.

* * *

A/N: So, that's the entirety of my interpretation of the NighT Series. I've read the manga and the novelization and they both tell a completely different story. The ending to them both is a happy one. The video's ending doesn't imply that. Also, after watching the videos many times over, I began to notice small details in the background. Miku stealing the page in Crazy NighT, Miku's memories returning to her in Twilight NighT and briefly in Crazy NighT. I noticed that in Crazy NighT, Miku seems like she's already aware of the situation. She's smug as she plans to escape the crazed occupants. As mentioned before, Miku's shadow is seen in front of a stand. She's even singing a tune to the beat of Bad End Night. She knows that she's found their script. Also, if you pay close attention in Bad End NighT, the Doll Twins eyes are indeed red once Miku learns of time stopping. They're also red in the scene where the cast tries to reassure her when she finds the coffins.

Everlasting NighT also a pretty glaring fact that they were planning on taming and replacing her strongly suggests that they realized that the fake Miku was the one responsible for them being trapped in the first place.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed my interpretation of the NighT Series! Thanks for reading! :-)


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